Thursday, April 14, 2011

Friday, February 25, 2011

Hello Coon Prairie Trail friends and supporters,

Back in 2008, the community spoke loudly in support of a multi-use paved trail between Westby and Viroqua. The trail we now know as the Coon Prairie Trail. This trail will be an asset to both our small towns and provide hours of outdoor fun for families and all recreational users. In addition to promoting healthy activities, this trail will be another draw to bring people to this beautiful area, and that in turn, will help our local businesses and our local economy.
To ensure that the construction of the trail becomes a reality, Vernon Trails and Dr. Paul Grenier pledged $10,000.00 toward the construction, and another $1000.00 annually to maintain the trail. We are now asking for your support in meeting our financial obligation. If you would like to be a part of making this dream a reality, please make your tax free donations to Vernon Trails “Friends of the Trail” Fund.

Important points:

All donations are tax-deductable. Please make checks payable to Vernon Trails. On the checks memo line, please have the donors write “Friends of the Trail donation”.

All donations over $500.00, $1,000.00 and $5,000.00 will be listed accordingly as major sponsors at the wayside park between Westby and Viroqua. Great Publicity for our local businesses! All other donors will be recognized in the newspaper.

Please have checks made to Vernon Trails by March 7, 2011
Call Dr. Paul Grenier at 608-606-2600 or contact Alycann Taylor at 608-637-2072
Thank you in advance for your support of this worthy cause!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS: The Kickapoo Valley Reserve is organizing a cross country ski race in conjunction with their Winter Festival on Saturday, January 8, 2011. They asked Vernon Trails to partner with them to make the event happen. The race, The Dam FUNSKI, will offer a 1-3 K course for kids and a 10 K course for adults. It will take place at the KVR dam site located just outside of La Farge and will start at 10 am and should finish no later than noon. They need us to take charge on race day: parking, racer check-in, start, timing, logistics, course stations, recovery station, finish, awards, etc. This race will be a Vernon Trails fundraiser. Let me know if you’re willing and available to volunteer.Call Pete at Bluedog Cycles 637-6993Or Email us at vernon_trails@yahoo.com

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Twinkle Fest Parade is quickly approaching the town of Viroqua, and Bluedog Cycles is looking for parade riders. Every year, on the Friday night after Thanksgiving we decorate our bikes, don our warm wears, and ride our trusted two-wheeled steeds through the streets of Viroqua as the most enthusiastic group in the Twinkle Fest Parade. This year we will be meeting in the large parking lot behind Nelson’s Agri-Center right next to the Warehouse (look for the Bluedog Cycles white van) at 6:45pm to do our pre-ride warm-ups and practice our choreographed riding tricks. As always, the best decorated rider/bike will be rewarded with a gift certificate from your favorite local bike shop. After the parade, we will head to the shop for a little party. Please pass this along to anyone that you think might enjoy being in a parade, and we’ll see you on Friday night.

Friday, October 8, 2010

On Saturday, September 25th, Vernon Trails hosted their 5th annual Sidiefest at Sidie Hollow County Park. Over 50 volunteers arrived ready to do various trail work tasks in the morning and worked until mid-afternoon. Over 250 hours of volunteer work was logged and trail maintenance tasks included raking, brush cutting, invasive species eradication, and bench cutting.

The event, which always falls on National Public Lands Day has logged over 1000 volunteer hours, seen 300+ volunteers, and produced 9 miles of wonderful “shared-use” trails for all park visitors to enjoy. Over the past four years Vernon Trails has been working closely with Vernon County Parks to create a trail network that has become an invaluable resource for the community and a considerable draw to silent sports enthusiasts from a much broader regional scope.

After the work day concluded, volunteers were invited to stay for a barbeque, a door prize raffle, and entertainment from four local bands. Over 150 people attended the event to “play in the park” for the day. Several attendees stayed to camp for the night and have a big pancake breakfast on Sunday. Guided trail tours were given by bike and foot after breakfast and the new sections of trail were “stomped down”.

Vernon Trails would like to thank the many, many volunteers who showed up to work in the woods, the great bands that entertained us, The Cakery, The Viroqua Food Co-op, Organic Valley and Central Waters for the food and drink, Dairyland Printing, Bluedog Cycles, Mt Borah for their continued support, door prize schwag, and the use of their cool shuttle van, Human Powered Trails (of La Crosse) for the use of their trail tools, and the tireless friends who help out all year long with the random volunteer efforts.

Trail work will continue well into the fall at Sidie Hollow as well as on the 150 acres of private land that Vernon Trails is building upon. The long term vision is to connect the Sidie Hollow trail network all the way back to the town of Viroqua. Please contact Vernon Trails for more information on how to become a volunteer or to make your tax deductible donation to the non-profit group so we can continue to create this silent sports paradise.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

This weekend is Vernon Trails 5th Annual Sidiefest out at Sidie Hollow County Park. Join us Saturday to and help clean up our county park trails and enjoy in a family fun celebration including food, drink, live music by great local talent, and free camping! Sunday morning we offer a pancake breakfast and trail stomp! Sidiefest is a true Community builder!

About Us

Vernon Trails is a non-profit organization committed to
developing and maintaining sustainable roadways and
trails, while continuing to create access for human
powered users.
Vernon Trails is the IMBA and WORBA chapter for the
Vernon and Crawford county areas.
Contact us at vernon_trails@yahoo.com or call 608-637-2072.